Out of curiosity, did you pre-heat all of the glass to drive out moisture? I expect you will definitely see some condensation somewhere of water. Where it decides to show up might be interesting. It's a nice setup, glad to see someone doing and sharing their "solar catching" mechanisms. I love the way you have this setup with the funnel flask and alembic. Very clever

Out of curiosity, did you pre-heat all of the glass to drive out moisture? I expect you will definitely see some condensation somewhere of water. Where it decides to show up might be interesting. It's a nice setup, glad to see someone doing and sharing their "solar catching" mechanisms. I love the way you have this setup with the funnel flask and alembic. Very clever

Ah, a funnel. Okay. I suspect you will at the very least trap a good bit of some dust. You said the window will be open most of the time? Might be some little bits of meteorite in there as well. Any hidden bits in here, or pretty much "what you see is what you get?"

Ah, a funnel. Okay. I suspect you will at the very least trap a good bit of some dust. You said the window will be open most of the time? Might be some little bits of meteorite in there as well. Any hidden bits in here, or pretty much "what you see is what you get?"

Well it's no more or less than my version of the setup shown in my first link above and described at Beyer's book. Nothing hidden added. As I said before, I am sceptic as well. Why did you change from condensation of water to dust and meteorite?

Your approach has got me thinking if using buchner flasks could also work. See pic below

Idea would be to have the inlet and outlet in-line and on opposite sides to each other and somehow create a tight seal between the mouth of the two flasks one of which is inverted on top of the other. Something like the following:

Also, if you have a moment, I too am interested to find out where you bought your alembic head. I've been on the lookout for a while and so far most of the sources seem to be quite pricey.

TIA

Last edited by Aham; 04-17-2018 at 01:04 PM.
Reason: Added pic for clarity